Richard Burton

[David Challinor]

Is anyone as excited as I am that a new de luxe version of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds includes an uncut/virtually unheard near 40 minutes of the Great Welsh Voice narrating H G Wells' classic tale? Edited for the double LP's release in 1978 apparently there's an outtake with Burton sharing a laugh with a very nervous David Essex who has admitted he felt dwarfed by the Hollywood actor's presence in the recording studio....I was given the album as a 14th birthday present, and I listened to it all in one go on that Christmas Eve morning 1978. It is a memory I treasure as I was not overly familiar with the story, and I feel this 'oral / pop version' is excellent... Burton's first line takes me right back to that time, sitting with my tiny cassette player - ''Noone would have believed in the last years of the 19th century...''

[Diane Blackwell]

Yep, I'm pretty interested in that as well. I first listened to it when I was 14 and have loved it (i.e. Richard Burton's velvet yet menacing voice) ever since.

[Malcolm]

I would never describe Richard Burton as a Hollywood actor. He was a Welsh actor who made some films in Hollywood, amongst other places.

[Gibbie]

I would never describe Richard Burton as a Hollywood actor. He was a Welsh actor who made some films in Hollywood, amongst other places.

He was Wales, Hollywood and beyond.

[David Challinor]

An excellent biography: 'Rich' - Melvyn Bragg...



(amazon.com quotes £54 for that extra 36 minutes of him on WotW...very tempted to splash out)

[noglea]

Saw an interview with Jeff Wayne recently. Apparently he is hoping to make a feature film based on his album which would use the soundtrack including Richard Burton's voice. Apparently it is also down to Wayne that Spielberg doesn't use the word 'the' before 'War of the Worlds' in his recent version. Can's say what I think of Steven's film as I refuse to watch it on general principal as the book is set in Victorian England and Spielberg's decision to update it to the modern day U.S.A. show the contempt with which he obviously views the source material. Will give Jeff Wayne's version a go if if he ever gets round to make it.

[Steve Crook]

Saw an interview with Jeff Wayne recently. Apparently he is hoping to make a feature film based on his album which would use the soundtrack including Richard Burton's voice. Apparently it is also down to Wayne that Spielberg doesn't use the word 'the' before 'War of the Worlds' in his recent version. Can's say what I think of Steven's film as I refuse to watch it on general principal as the book is set in Victorian England and Spielberg's decision to update it to the modern day U.S.A. show the contempt with which he obviously views the source material. Will give Jeff Wayne's version a go if if he ever gets round to make it.

But the story's been updated and relocated before - remember the Orson Welles, Mercury Theatre radio version in 1938. That updated it to 1938 and relocated it to Grover's Mill, New Jersey. Not much contempt of source material there.



Steve

[Jim]

Saw an interview with Jeff Wayne recently. Apparently he is hoping to make a feature film based on his album which would use the soundtrack including Richard Burton's voice. Apparently it is also down to Wayne that Spielberg doesn't use the word 'the' before 'War of the Worlds' in his recent version. Can's say what I think of Steven's film as I refuse to watch it on general principal as the book is set in Victorian England and Spielberg's decision to update it to the modern day U.S.A. show the contempt with which he obviously views the source material. Will give Jeff Wayne's version a go if if he ever gets round to make it.

Hear hear! Let's hope that Jeff Wayne gets the cash together to make his version. I noted the other day on tele that an advert for the Jeff Wayne version, that they animated it in the same style as the LP, CD covers and booklet! NOW, if they can do that, they can do the real thing!!!!!!!

[David Challinor]

According to a couple of sci-fi sites I've visited, Jeff Wayne's CGI film of the record-of the-book will hit the cinemas in 2007/08. Apparently there a couple of test scenes you can download and its got the thumbs up from fans (I actually saw an ad for illustrators for it addressed in all places Wolverhampton, sadly, not Woking!)...there's one problem with CGI though, it'll make the human characters move more like martians than people! How about some good old proper animation!!!!

[DeeDee]

I first saw Richard Burton is a film called The Robe. I fell in love.



Two of Burton's best films, IMHO, were Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, and Night of the Iguana.

[David Challinor]

I loved Equus - the album's good with lots of speeches from the Great Voice

[Quiller]

Often a moment from a Richard Burton film will pop into my head, usually where he's thesping it up, and I'll start laughing to myself.



Today it was the scene in The Longest Day where he's lying propped up against a building outside, legs all "shot to hell, yack! yack!" having a conversation with Jeffrey Hunter: "Give me a cigarette," he hams, "I'm dying for a cigarette."



Absolutely classic. 100% Welsh ham. When he winces with pain; standout thespian moment of his entire career. "A medic came by earlier... sewed it up with... safety-pins."



God, they don't make 'em like that anymore.



I've just realised, this is in the wrong section of the forum It's moved, it's now in the right section of the forum - obviously.

[Steve Crook]

Often a moment from a Richard Burton film will pop into my head, usually where he's thesping it up, and I'll start laughing to myself.



Today it was the scene in The Longest Day where he's lying propped up against a building outside, legs all "shot to hell, yack! yack!" having a conversation with Jeffrey Hunter: "Give me a cigarette," he hams, "I'm dying for a cigarette."



Absolutely classic. 100% Welsh ham. When he winces with pain; standout thespian moment of his entire career. "A medic came by earlier... sewed it up with... safety-pins."



God, they don't make 'em like that anymore.



I've just realised, this is in the wrong section of the forum It's moved, it's now in the right section of the forum - obviously.

Tony Hopkins does a reasonable impersonation for anyone that doesn't know what the real thing was like. But there was only ever one Richard Burton.



"To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible black, the cobble streets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloe black, slow, black, crow black fishing boat-bobbing sea. ..."

He was the perfect First Voice, especially in the radio version.



Even in small cameos like reading the list of those awarded the VC at the end of Zulu, he was wonderful.



Steve

[Fellwanderer]

Tony Hopkins does a reasonable impersonation for anyone that doesn't know what the real thing was like. But there was only ever one Richard Burton.



"To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible black, the cobble streets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloe black, slow, black, crow black fishing boat-bobbing sea. ..."

He was the perfect First Voice, especially in the radio version.



Even in small cameos like reading the list of those awarded the VC at the end of Zulu, he was wonderful.



Steve

Got to agree - a truly wonderful and unforgettable voice [for a man, of course!]

[DB7]

]Got to agree - a truly wonderful and unforgettable voice [for a man, of course!]

And Jenny fans will recall some particularly effective monologues to camera in Equus.

[Quiller]

Nutting Elizabeth was the only way to shut her up...

[jersey_lightning]

Two other memorable moments in Burton's career:



1.) As the priest in Exorcist Two who, when questioned how he arrived so quickly, replies "I've come on the wings of a demon."



2.) As the drunken Welsh poet, Mephisto, in the X-rated '60s epic, "Candy." Pawing the nubile young Candy in the back of a limo, Mephisto drops his whiskey and grovels on the limo floor, lapping up the spilled drink. The scene is shot looking upward through a glass floor, more to show Candy's underpants than anything, but it adds to the effect of the drunken Burton, er, Mephisto. How far the mighty have fallen!



If anyone remembers the '80s take on "Christmas Carol" called "Scrooged" with Bill Murray, there is a little scene where Murray does a great Burton impression.



Kat in the U.S.

[Mr Magister]

As the drunken Welsh poet, Mephisto, in the X-rated '60s epic, "Candy." Pawing the nubile young Candy in the back of a limo, Mephisto drops his whiskey and grovels on the limo floor, lapping up the spilled drink. The scene is shot looking upward through a glass floor, more to show Candy's underpants than anything, but it adds to the effect of the drunken Burton, er, Mephisto. How far the mighty have fallen!

I love the way his hair is ruffled by a breeze even when indoors!

[donna]

Does anyone know why Richard Burton was buried in Switzerland, Im sure an acotor who loved his own country Wales so much would have wanted to come home.

[batman]

IIRC his final resting place was chosen by his widow, which caused a huge rift between her and his family who had a burial plot reserved for him in Wales and fully expected him to be buried there.